I think GLAAD wants everyone to be honest about their sexuality. Keeping it in the closet shouldn't be considered just "the down low". I tend to agree but I'm not up in arms about it.

I THINK they don't mean that "down low" is itself offensive, I THINK they are just trying to explain that "men who secretly have sex with men" is what Hughley meant by "on the down low" in the offending quote. Because what he says is not immediately clear.

A better way of saying it would have been, "...communicated misinformation about the spread of AIDS, placing blame on men who have sex with men but publicly identify as heterosexual, which Hughley referred to as 'on the down low'."

ETA: Hmm, I read a little further...Shepherd went one step further and said, "Down low is black men who've been going out." In that regard, that's a pretty sh*tty use of the term "down low" and is rightfully pointed out. I don't think the phrase was PREVIOUSLY offensive, but if Sheperd wants to define it that way, then yeah, that use of it is offensive.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that exactly what "down low" is? I thought it was Black men* who identify as straight but secretly have sex with men without telling their wives/girlfriends.


*While they don't necessarily have to be Black, in general practice this phenomenon is most common in that community.

Hey, I learned what "down low" is from an episode of Law & Order: SVU years ago. Did GLAAD protest then? If not then I'm in the camp of thinking their wording was unclear over exactly what they're upset about.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure "on the down low" is the phrase used by (African American) men who claim to be straight, but secretly fool around with men. Learned that one from The Starter Wife ;)

Ummm, and here I thought all this time I was just telling people to be discrete with the pipe. I seem to have been using that phrase very very incorrectly.

I was 100% unaware that, as you seem to be indicating, there was common use of it as a euphemism specifically for that. I had always heard and used it as a generic idiom to indicate doing anything discretely.

Knowing that bit of information...I star to agree with GLAAD, it comes across as derogatory to me. Maybe people "in the know" do use it in non-derogatory ways, but coming out of the mouths people who are clearly trying to ignorantly paint those "on the down low" as the primary problem in the fight against AIDS, it crosses a line.

Although I do agree that if that is what they're on about, while I might agree on principle, I do think it's not high on the priority list of things to criticize the idiots about. They could use the nicest, most flowery terms they damn well please, it wouldn't change the fact that they're trying to blame AIDS on closeted black homosexuals.

I learned that on the same episode!

Prior to that L&O I had heard and [still] use it this way too. I think it's contextual.

Yes, "keep it on the down low" is a phrase that predates this usage. And I don't really see how it is any more derogatory than "closeted", "in the closet," "secretly bisexual", or "married bisexual men who don't tell their wives" would have been.

Maybe Elizabeth Hasselback, but I don't really think D.L. Hughley would fall into that category.